Conference Agenda

Densely populated fringe areas located on the outskirts of large urban centres, such as garden zones, vinehills and resort areas, have emerged as focal points of spatial transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary, following the political and economic transitions of the post-socialist era. These areas have become destinations for diverse and often contrasting migration processes, such as suburbanisation (even within city limits), economically driven migration, and employment-related mobility from remote rural areas to urban peripheries. These dynamics have led to pronounced social polarisation and fragmented land use changes, ranging from intensive urban development to landscape degradation.

Given the micro-level nature of these transformation processes, which often vary even within a single street, mapping such changes through statistical data and remote sensing poses significant challenges. To address these limitations, we complement traditional approaches with field data collection. However, conventional paper-based field surveys present numerous obstacles, including the coordination of team efforts, variability in survey design across study areas, and the conspicuous presence of surveyors in local settings. In addition, the high proportion of properties in these peripheral areas do not comply with legal standards, which underlines both the inconsistencies in urban planning and the growing social inequalities.

Our research methodology centres on mobile-based field data collection using the QField application. This approach enables the construction of a parcel-level database capable of accurately mapping the transformation of complex, mixed-use peri-urban areas. In this presentation, we will discuss the methodological features of our research and share our field experiences. Beyond the intended quantitative insights, the research has unexpectedly incorporated qualitative dimensions through interactions with residents in fringe areas.

This study is supported by the FK 146486 project (“An inexhaustible resource? Garden zones, vinehills and resort areas in the squeeze of urban development”), funded by the National Research, Development, and Innovation Fund within the framework of the FK_23 grant program.

In Turkey, as in many Mediterranean countries, the Covid-19 pandemic enhanced the mobility of the country’s affluent classes to coastal towns. Many decided to settle there permanently, either by making their second homes their main residences or by purchasing or renting new property. This has created severe social, infrastructural, and environmental problems in these towns because of transformed demographics, a largely unregulated construction boom, increased renovation activities, and an unprecedented rise in real estate and consumer goods prices.

This study focuses on two coastal/vacation towns in Turkey that have been subject to intense population flows from metropolitan areas during the Covid-19 period: Seferihisar (in İzmir province) and Datça (in Muğla province). We conducted field research in these districts and semi-structured interviews with the district mayors, administrative officials in the municipality, residents, neighborhood mukhtars, real estate agents, and contractors. We investigated the economic, social, administrative, spatial, and environmental impacts of urban to rural migration on the Seferihisar and Datça districts. In this presentation, we would like to share our data regarding societal conflicts particularly caused by the "misplaced" expectations of the newcomers. At the beginning of the research, we have an expectation that due to many problems caused by the increasing inflow of people, the local residents of these coastal towns may raise complaints about the new incoming population. However, the field study provides data that contradicts our initial assumptions. The newcomers seem to have a very selective perception of what "nature" provides them, and they seem to have a longing for a new, but slower version of an urban life in these coastal towns. Paradoxically, they also voice their complaints louder than the "native" residents about the rapidly transforming and "urbanizing" context of these small towns.

The lived experience and the transformative effects of urban-to-rural lifestyle migration are key research interests of rural studies, but we know little about what happens when urban dwellers make use of their local voting rights after relocating to rural areas. The paper presents insights from ethnographic explorations in a peripherialized rural region of Czechia in which social and spatial disadvantage intersect. Using an agency framework to bring the scholarship of lifestyle migration into a conversation with the literature on the transforming modes of political participation, the paper investigates how lifestyle migration affects the subjective perceptions and practical enactment of political agency of both lifestyle migrants and other rural residents. The findings show that lifestyle migration into rural peripheries widens the room to manoeuvre of the newcomers and highlights the role electoral tools play for the emergence of new formations of local citizenship. However, when lifestyle migrants emerge as political actors, this also triggers uncertainties, social distinctions and local power struggles. The contribution is intended to stimulate further conceptual work towards a nuanced understanding of the political realm of urban-to-rural lifestyle migration and points out promissing avenues for further research.

Within the framework of rural gentrification theory (Phillips, 1993; 2010; Phillips et. al. 2021) in “The role of gentrification in rural development” (FK-138098) research project the motivations, perceptions and impacts of urban to rural movers (rural gentrifiers) on their chosen settlement over four years was examined. It was found that many of the urban newcomers established small businesses in their chosen rural village, primarily in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Both academics and policymakers agree that boosting rural tourism can be an important escape route for charming rural settlements that have lost their agricultural role. On the basis of interviews with around 100 entrepreneurs (both indigenous and newcomer) in six research areas, the presentation will seek to answer the question: what exactly do the incomers/lifestyle entrepreneurs bring to the table, what material, cultural and social capital, knowledge and skills do they mobilise for the benefit of their business and the wider community, and to what extent can this contribute to the economic success of the local entrepreneurial community as a whole, could they contribute to the livelihoods and sustainability of the rural community or do the benefits accrue only to them? On the other hand, we have also seen that different socio-cultural backgrounds, values and attitudes sometimes lead to radically different visions of the development path and future desired by newcomers and indigenous local entrepreneurs. In this presentation I would also like to highlight where, along which value choices and attitudes, the greatest differences, even conflicts, exist.